Thursday, February 19, 2009

For Debby

Short detour from my current series on biblical themes.

Debby, a frequent commenter and dear digital friend (a.k.a. one of the coolest ladies I've never met), had her last day of chemo today! She has been sharing all the ups and downs of cancer, chemo, unemployment, family, holidays... pretty much her life as an open book on the blog. It's been an honor to read it.

She will soon be headed to visit her son and her friends for some days and nights of family, jokes and laughing.

So in the spirit of family and comedy, here are some things from our household over the past couple of weeks:

********************************************************

Jack: Daddy, what are those white things on your chin?
Me: ...hairs, son...

********************************************************

Mid-morning on Monday (a holiday for me) Jack and I stopped by Samantha's school to drop something off. When we walked into her classroom, the teacher warmly welcomed us:

Teacher: Hello, Samantha's daddy! Hello, Jack! Everybody say hi to Jack!
Class: Helloooooo, Jack!
Jack: (Raises hands dramatically) DON'T LISTEN TO ME!!! I'M CRAZY!!!!

********************************************************

Last night I was getting the bath ready for the kids. They were playing in Jack's room and were supposed to be getting "naykee".

Samantha: Oh Jack, I'm so, so sorry.
Me: What happened? Is he hurt?
Samantha: No. I pooped on his floor.
Me: Huh?
Samantha: Don't worry (she got a kleenex, picked up the nugget, and took it to the bathroom.
Me: What just happened?
Samantha: That's what happens when you take your panties off and then laugh really, really hard.
********************************************************

Then Samantha dropped this one on me:

Samantha: Daddy, why do good people sometimes get killed for doing good things?
Me: Why do you ask, sugar? (In my head: "WHAT? ALREADY? I'M NOT READY FOR THIS CONVERSATION!")
Samantha: Because of Martin Luther King. He was good. But he got killed.
Me: Hmmm... you're right. And you know what? (SHE'S ONLY SIX!)
Samantha: What?
Me: When he got killed, it kinda woke people up to how wrong that was. He would talk about how we all need to love each other, no matter what color our skin is. But some people thought he was complaining too much, and it wasn't really a problem. When he got killed, though, everybody realized that the problem was real. It woke them up. And now today we treat each other better. (EXHALE)
Samantha: Even The Rock Obama has brown skin, and he's our President!
Me: Exactly!
********************************************************

So you see, even in the midst of toddler craziness and kingergarten humor, poignant moments of clarity and importance emerge from the chaos.

Life's funny like that.

9 comments:

Bob said...

Great stuff. What a great family. And I can tell you it only gets better when they become teenagers. To wit, I was recently lamenting some supposed sad state of affairs in my family and asked my 16-year-old the classic question, "Where did I go wrong?" His reply, without missing a beat: "You want that chronologically, numerically or alphabetically?"

Hooray for Debby today!!!!!

Debby said...

When mine got to be teenagers and we were having those classic conversations, I'd fix my eye on them and say mournfully, 'there it is, proof positive that I did not beat you nearly enough when you were children.' That always got a laugh.

~aj~ said...

I laughed out loud at Jack's declaration of craziness!

And I fell more in love with Samantha (who knew that was possible?!) over her insightful observations.

I'm missin' those silly kiddos!

~aj~ said...

...poop nuggets and all. :)

Don said...

You gotta write a book!

RedWifey said...

Even today I laughed till I cried about Samantha's silly poopoo accident.

Logan said...

You have a great family...wonderful stories!

MamaRose said...

GREAT POST, Bud--TOTALLY ENJOYED it & the SMART & FUNNY things your/'our' kiddos SAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's AMAZING that Sam even KNOWS WHO Martin Luther King is/was & SO inciteful what she 'gained' from his story/life--ALREADY--at such a VERY YOUNG AGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And, her poo accident--just TELL HER that when you get to be a GM, then it's ALL GAS.........!!!!!!!!!

And, JACK, THE COMDEIAN--HE IS SO FUNNY--even when he's NOT 'trying'--I LOVED the things he said to me--just 'off the cuff' when I was down there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That one he said to me twice--'I cannot say that'--when as Matt noted to me later when I told them about it--THAT was HARDER to say than the "YES, US" or whatever it was I was TRYING to get him to SAY!!!!!!!!!

Matt also says that Adam tells HIM the same thing & THEN he tells Adam--'WHAT is it that you CANNOT SAY?' & THEN, ADAM will say: "I cannot say--YEA, US"--like that--so, I'm STILL LEARNING FROM 'my'/OUR KIDDOS/boys--HA!!!!!

It's a GREAT LEARNING CYCLE!!!!!!!!
CALLED 'LIFE' & ours has been VERY, VERY BLESSED, already!!!!!!!!
THANKS TO YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HEY--DEBBY--I didn't know that about you--WAY TO GO--SO HAPPY for you that you're on the TAIL END of ALL OF THAT & doing BETTER!!!!!!
Our prayers are still with you!!!LOVE YOU BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mom

Anonymous said...

OMG, these are great stories Michael